WELCOME TO MY TRAVEL BLOG

I have always enjoyed traveling, even if it meant sleeping in a tent when I was younger. I prefer hotels and cruise cabins now, but the motivation is the same...an adventure waiting to happen. Sometimes you will find me traveling with my husband and/or family. Sometimes I will travel alone, and sometimes I will travel with friends. I hope you find it entertaining to keep up to date with me as I explore the world around me. Warning...I like to take pictures of food so don't read if you're hungry. More adventures await...see ya soon...Amy.

Monday, September 20, 2010

Luzern and the train to Innsbruck, Austria

Bachmann House of Chocolate

Danny standing next to a pile of Luxemburgerli, Switzerland's version of the French Macaron. I just had to try one for comparison and there isn't one....hands down Laduree has them beat.

Danny made me take a picture of this Maserati to show Noah. Danny made me take the picture fast in case the owner would come out and yell at us for taking a picture of his very expensive car.

Aha! We found the Girolle and a mural depicting the Monks with their own cheese and Girolle

Tete de Moine cheese (Monk's Head Cheese). So called because when the label is removed from the top, it looks like the top of a Monk's head

Rows and Rows of cheese. This little cheese shop was REALLY smelly

One of the towers of the battlements

The old battlement wall with new construction behind it

I don't think I would want to eat "Wild ?", especially in a foreign country. For all I know, this word might not even be "wild". The languages are all a game.

Lake Front Luzern with a flower lined covered bridge in front

You can buy a "Maybe Baby" pregnancy test in the same vending machine as M&M's....Amazing!

I would rather eat dessert in train stations here than any of the airports I have been in

My dessert....a chocolate mousse cake

Danny's desert...chocolate mousse in a chocolate cup

This would beat a Yahoo any day...70% cocoa chocolate melted in milk and served cold. I didn't try one, but wish I had

Waiting for the train

We saw several castles up on hills while we were in the train

The Penz, our hotel

Danny calls these folded duvets "sheet bags". Most of the hotels we have stayed in, don't have a sheet,but have a duvet in a cover instead.

The Golden Adler...our dinner restaurant

Me in the restaurant

Roast Beef and pan roasted potatoes with bacon and a fried egg on top....did not eat the fried egg and the rest was wonderful!

We have been blessed with beautiful weather on this entire trip. The temperatures have been in the 60's during the day and the 40's at night. This morning we stayed in Luzern because we had a mission. Danny is not a shopper, he is a finder. I took full advantage of this today as we went on the search for a Girolle. This is the contraption that Kathy use to shave the Tete de Moine cheese (Monk's Head Cheese). The Migros is the equivalent here to a Target in the US or a Monoprix in France. Unfortunately there was a big empty spot on the shelf for the Girolle and they didn't expect any more until the afternoon. I remembered that I had read that they might be in better cheese shops and knew there was a cheese shop around the corner. Not only did they have them, there was a whole display for them. The Girolle was created to work with only one kind of cheese, Tete de Moine. Now I have to find the cheese on the internet because if it's not cheddar, it's not in Lake Providence. There is an odd odor in ALL of the restaurants in the parts of Switzerland we have visited. It is a cross between a stinky foot and a smelly dog. We found out why when we went into the cheese shop. It's the cheese!!! Especially if the restaurant serves fondue. Once you sit in the restaurant awhile, you don't smell it anymore, thank goodness. We also went to look at the old city battlements. All of the towers are different and they were doing restoration on one of the ones we saw. After shopping and a little wandering, we grabbed a coffee at Starbucks so we could use the restroom before getting on the train. In France and here in Switzerland, at Starbucks you have to make a purchase and get a code for the restroom. At home they are usually free and a great place for a clean restroom when you are traveling. We try not to use the restrooms in the train station because they are usually co-ed AND you have to pay for it. Co-ed as in men and women in the restroom at the same time. Very weird. We had stored our bags at the train station this morning after we checked out of our hotel. Those lockers are so handy! Our train travel today was in two stages. The first leg was to Zurich and then from Zurich to Innsbruck. We ate lunch in the Zurich station and it was surprisingly wonderful. We bought a pork sausage and the vendor cut a baguette in half, stuck it on a wood pole to make a hole in it and pushed the sausage in the hole. We liked it so much, we are looking forward to eating another one when we go to Zurich on Wednesday. Our train was VERY nice on the second leg and we enjoyed the views from the big windows. We arrived in Innsbruck around 6 p.m. Our hotel is The Penz located about a 15-20 minute walk from the train station. We ate dinner at The Golden Adler, a recommendation by our hotel. They asked if we wanted Tyrolian food and Danny said Yes! I was just trying to figure out what Tyrolian food was and whether or not it was something I would eat! Our meal was wonderful!!! Tomorrow we will tour the old part of the city around our hotel and spend some time in the mountains. Until then....